


Anything You Want

by Wolkemesser



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Flash Fic, Ixalan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 13:13:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15195515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolkemesser/pseuds/Wolkemesser
Summary: A mysterious raider storms the golden city of Orazca with her crewmates in tow. How will they fare against the Sun Empire's dinosaurs?A flash fic I did based on a WotC Prompt!





	Anything You Want

_“Treasure.”_

_That’s what my mother called me. She told me once that she pulled me out of a chest pilfered from the river heralds. That she thought I was a statue of jade and gold when she claimed me as her share, until I grew warm in her arms and cried out._

I peek around the corner. The courtyard beyond the tower glows soft and golden under the sun.

“Three raptors. Two warriors.”

“Easy pickings.” Orla clenches her axe. The big orc has been spoiling for a fight since we found the lost city of Orazca. “Let’s sink the bastards.”

“Why fight?” Theo pats his crossbow nervously. “This place is made of treasure. Let’s start loading it up.”

“Idiot.” Orla is already on her way out of the shadows. “Fewer lizard-riders stomping around the place means an easier time packing all the gold up.”

I nod. “Let’s get to pillaging, you storm-rats.”

_My mother had enough gold to keep a small shack for the two of us on the High and Dry. When she set sail I found my own company on the docks and in the alleyways. Other children with mothers and fathers out plundering. Dock orphans whose parents would never come back. The goblin children were always the nicest to me. They didn’t mind so much when my skin would turn blue._

_Or other colors._

“AVAST!” Orla bellows at the sun-warriors as she barrels toward them. Some pirates just can’t resist a bit of theatricality.

She gets the attention of the raptors right away. They split apart to try and outflank her, but Orla swings her axe in a wide arc, forcing them back a step. Her backswing catches one of the beasts in the side of the head, and she flings the corpse at a second one.

Theo shoots at the third beast. The bolt catches it in the shoulder and it screams. Theo fumbles to load a second shot as the dinosaur handlers close in on him, blades drawn.

I whip past Theo and cut one across the face. The mistake most make when fighting the sun empire is focusing on the dinosaurs and forgetting about the humans. The sun warriors are skilled killers, and they’ll sink a blade in your back while you’re trying to deal with their pets.

_Mother would bring me necklaces and bracelets and daggers from her travels. I loved them, but not nearly as much as I loved the stories that she brought back with them. Stories of deep green jungles, of high mountains and waterfalls. Of pale sailors dressed in gold and lizards as tall as foremasts. I wanted more than anything to see those wonderful things. To see anything beyond this heap of damp wood and sagging sails._

_Every time I would beg her to take me with her. She would kiss my forehead and laugh._

_“Maybe when you’re older, treasure. You can be anything you want. Not just a pirate like your old mom.”_

_When I was ten, mother’s ship returned without her. I waited in the shadows of the gangplank all night, shivering cold and wishing for her to wrap me in her arms. The captain found me there in the morning and told me mother had gone back to the sea._

_That I wouldn’t be seeing her again._

_I signed on as a cabin hand that same day, once my tears had dried._

_I skipped from ship to ship in those days. It was easy enough to leave a ship when we were in dry dock. Can’t punish a sailor for desertion if that sailor disappears forever._

_Sometimes I sailed the seas as a human. Sometimes as a goblin or a siren. I even spent a week as a dolphin when I decided mid-voyage that Captain Angrath’s ship wasn’t the place for me._

The last raptor has its teeth in Orla’s shoulders. Theo throws himself at the beast and it knocks both of them to the ground. I get a good look at the last sun warrior’s face and my skin begins to ripple and flow. He pauses and gapes, like everyone always does, and I take the opportunity to cut him down as I transform.

The raptors swings around, teeth bared-

-and freezes as it catches sight of its handler, smiling with a hand outstretched. The confusion in its eyes is almost comical as it looks from me to the body splayed over the golden flagstones, trying to make sense of what it sees.

The raptor is still trying to figure out what I am when I slice it open with my cutlass.

_The goblins are in it for the gold, the sirens for the danger. The humans are in it for any number of reasons. The freedom. The riches. The fame. The admirers._

A roar shakes the courtyard.

Another band of sun-warriors comes sprinting round the golden tower, brandishing blades and urging on more raptors. The roar sounds again, louder this time, and a death lizard pounds into sight, looming tall as one of the smaller towers. A great golden eye glints from behind a steel harness.

“Blast.” Orla takes account of the warriors charging us. “On second thought, let’s grab some gold and run.”

_Me? I’ve been in it for the experience the whole time. Life is too short to spend in a shack on the water. Too short to spend in one place when there is so much to see._

_So much to experience._

_So much to be._

_Mother always told me I could be anything I wanted._

“Belay that.” I throw my cutlass down onto the golden flagstones. “We’re not backing down now.”

“Treya! You crazy? We ain’t never taken down a beast of that scale!” Theo’s voice is high with panic.

My lips split apart with a grin, then further still as my teeth sharpen and lengthen. My skin grows rough with scales, my muscles ripple underneath.

“First time for everything.”

_I guess she was right._

“Anything You Want” is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.


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